The Gender of God in the Bible, Ancient Judaism, and the Early Church

[Deadworm]

I open wih 4 theses designed to stimulate a discussion. If no one responds, then I'll be forced to give lectures, and I don't want that. I intend to pursue these topics sequentially, but I welcome digressions that serve the flow of discussion.

(1) The Old Testament (OT) repeatedly denies the God is a "male" both explicitly and implicitly.

(2) One way to look at any god's is the role they play as ultimate symbols of power. If the ultimate symbols of power are exclusively male, then patriarchy will be able to use them as a tool to subordinate women and harm their self-image. On the other hand, it the feminine has a sufficient role in the ultimate symbols of power, then one might expect women to have equal rights and enhanced dignity, status, and power. I will develop 2 examples to illustrate the truth of this expectation, one from the OT era and the other from the early Christian era.

(3) Even in patriarchal perceptions of the uniquely feminine, aspects of feminine stereotypes are deemed superior to the stereotypes of masculinity. For example, a woman's intuition, her power to give birth, and her womb and breasts as symbols of her nurturing gifts were widely perceived as lacking a satisfactory masculine counterpart, and this lack inspired feminine imagery of the divine in early Judeo-Christian tradition.

(4) More profound, but also more controversial, is the claim that the Jungian explanation of how the human psyche works makes feminine imagery of the divine inevitable, even, or should I say especially, in a domineering patriarchy.

Do any or all of these 4 theses interest anyone here? If so, are you also interested in the relevance of this to how the church should or should not respond to such issues?

 

[Deadworm]

(1) The Bible specifically denies that God is literally a male: "God is not a male ("ish"), that He should lie (Numbers 15:29)." "Ish" is the Hebrew word for "male." "He (God) is not a male (Hebrew: "adam"), that He should have regret (1 Samuel 15:29)".
a. Both males and females are created in God's image (Genesis 1;27-28). So God is neither gender.
b. Does the God of Scripture think like a man, not like a woman? "My thoughts are not your thoughts, not are my ways your ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:7-8)"

 

[Grafted In]

Who are you?

 

[Deadworm]

(2a) Moving beyond the semantics of gender language, let's consider an ancient Jewish example of how divine gender correlates with the status of women. From about the late 6th to the fourth century BC, the Jews had a colony on Elephantine, an island on the Nile River opposite Aswan. Their Elephantine Temple likely had a replica of the Jerusalem Temple's Ark of the Covenant. An ancient Ethiopian church claims to guard the authentic Ark, complete with Moses' tablets inscribed with the 10 commandments, but this Ark is most likely the Elephantine Ark transported down the Nile to Ethiopia when this Jewish colony was destroyed. If so, the Ethiopian Ark would still be priceless because it can be traced back to the age of the great OT prophets.

What practical difference in the OT era does it make to have a female ultimate symbol of power? The Elephantine colony was heretical because it worshiped both Yahweh and the Canaanite/ Egyptian war goddess Anath, who was viewed as Yahweh's consort. What is most intriguing about this ultimate female symbol of power is the fourfold difference She made to the status of the Jewish women there.

(1) In Israel, the woman was her husband's property and, as such, she could not divorce him. But on Elephantine Jewish wives could divorce their husbands. (2) Husbands could neither be polygamous nor take concubines on Elephantine, unlike contemporary Israel. (3) In Elephantine, women could inherit, receive, and exchange property and goods, but Palestinian wives and daughters could almost never inherit property. (4) Unlike their female counterparts in Israel, Elephantine women had equal rights, but this equality carried the same responsibilities that men had; i. e. women had to pay taxes, but they could litigate and share the same legal obligations as men, including military service.

Of course, I don't approve of polytheism. But this example and my upcoming Christian example illustrate the perks of dignity and equality that Judaeo-Christian women have when the divine in radically feminized.

 

[Hieronymus]

Male though i.m.o.
The female is derived from the man, the man was made in the image of Him.
Also Father and Son are male.

None the less, i think 'gender' is a term that applies to organisms, not to God.

 

[Deadworm]

(2b) A CHRISTIAN EXAMPLE OF THE PRACTICAL DIFFERENCE MADE BY FEMALE DIVINE IMAGERY:

"Remember the Alamo!" That was the cry of Gen. Sam Houston in his quest to drive the Mexican army from Texas. But you Christian women have failed to remember your Alamo! Your courageous foremothers tried to remind you by posting their identification with the 2nd century feminist "New Prophecy" on their gravestones. But patriarchy has effectively suppressed their witness. So let me tell you the story of your Davey Crockett and Sam Bowie, Priscilla and Maximilla.

The story begins with the cult of Cybele, "Mother of all gods," in Phrygia, a province of Asia Minor (Turkey). She evolves from the earliest deity, the Earth Mother whose statues have been found at the ancient settlement at Catal Huyuk in Anatolia (central Turkey). Yes, before there were gods, there was a goddess! Cybele's cult spread to Greece and then to Rome. Her priests were castrated, in part to stress the ultimate power of the feminine. But around 170 AD one of her priests, Montanus, became a Christian and immediately appointed 2 female prophets, Priscilla and Maximilla, as co-leaders. These women soon took over this charismatic movement. The Cybele cult featured ecstatic experiences, so these women sought to renew the NT church's stress on ecstatic prophesying. But they apparently wanted to integrate aspects of "the Mother of all gods" (Cybele). So they feminized Christ: "In the form of a woman, says she (Priscilla), arrayed in shiny garments, Christ came to me and set Wisdom (Sophia) upon me, and revealed to me that this place (Pepuza) is holy...(Epiphanius, Panarion 49 .1.2-3)." In a great and widespread spiritual awakening, these female prophets then appointed women as bishops throughout the Mediterranean world. In iconography Cybele was portrayed with 2 attendant lions. Priscilla and Maximilla could honestly anticipate the modern feminist motto, "I am Woman; hear me roar!" But how did they justify feminizing Christ? And what happened to their "feminist" churches? This brings us to your Alamo story, ladies.

These female prophets call their movement the New Prophecy, but their male Catholic enemies call them Montanists. Apparently, these female leaders (Priscilla, Maximilla, later Quintilla and a host of unnamed women) couldn't function within their patriarchal restraints. So they left their husbands to do missionary work and spread the New Prophecy. They flouted the current standards for Christian female modesty by using lots of makeup and wearing nice jewelry. They even convert the most distinguished North African Christian leader and writer of their day, the lawyer Tertullian (c. 208 AD). It's interesting and important to observe his shift towards a pro-charismatic perspective in his books written after his Montanist conversion. He describes a female prophet who goes out of body during Sunday worship and then reports her revelations after the service and the elders subject them to spiritual discernment. We hear of Montanist virgins processing during church, dressed in white robes and waving lanterns to act out Jesus' Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. They combine their fancy liturgical innovations with ecstatic prophesying.

These women were actually theologically orthodox, except for their unique requirement of more fasts for their ascetic lifestyles and their renewal of the now dormant ecstatic gift of prophecy. But when they appoint women as bishops to their new churches that spring up everywhere, that is the last straw. The bishop of Rome excommunicates them, but these uppity women retaliate by formally excommunicating him! The Catholics then try unsuccessfully to exorcise these women. Imagine the violent scene! Their books are destroyed, including 5 books on the New Prophecy written by Tertullian. After about 100 years, this feminist church movement is all but destroyed. Christian women have had their Alamo and been defeated. But their witness lives on through one sympathetic writer, some of Tertullian's books, and indirectly through the witness of their critics. In the formation of the NT canon, one reason for limiting divine revelation to the age of the apostles is to eliminate the prophetic revelations and authority of these Montanist women.

This feminist movement is energized partly by a vision of Christ as a Woman. How could they can justify this biblically? My next planned post will deal with this subject.

 

[1213]

...Do any or all of these 4 theses interest anyone here? If so, are you also interested in the relevance of this to how the church should or should not respond to such issues?

According to the Bible God is Spirit, Love and Father:

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
John 4:24

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:7-8

We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
1 John 4:16


There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.
Ephesians 4:4-6

So, if God is Spirit and Father, what does Father mean, if it is not biological thing? Difficult to say, perhaps it can be only known, if God reveals Himself to you. Unfortunately it seems to me that nowadays only few really understand what father or to be father means.

 

[Deadworm]

(3) GOD AS LADY WISDOM (Hebrew: "Hochmah;" Greek: "Sophia")
(3a) The Earliest Christian Version of the Trinity:

We read about "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" in Matthew 28:19-20. But the Greek word for "Trinity" (trias) not used here and this phrase does not mean the same thing as the creedal explanation of the Trinity. Theophilus of Antioch (180 AD) provides the earliest use of the term "Trinity" and he feminizes it, conceiving of it as "God, His Word, and His Wisdom" (Sophia--feminine) and can even call Christ "sophia." Other early Christian writings reword this as "The Father, the Son, and the Mother (= Sophia)." Jesus speaks as the mouthpiece of Lady Wisdom (Luke 11:49) and Matthew reinterprets this saying to elevate Jesus to Sophia Herself (Matt 23:34). So when a Montanist female prophet has a vision of Jesus as a Woman (= Lady Wisdom), she has precedent in our Gospels and in Jesus' self-understanding. Remember, the preexistent and glorified Christ transcends male anatomy!

The personification of Lady Wisdom derives from OT Wisdom literature that identifies Her as Lady Wisdom and often has Her speak directly as Lady Wisdom. The language used to characterize Her is borrowed from Egyptian goddess worship, specifically Isis worship. But orthodox Judaism is monotheist, so this goddess language is transformed into another figurative way of talking about Yahweh and His nature.

The feminist Montanist movement in the late 2nd century uses the image of a female Christ (Sophia) as a source of empowerment in their ambitious effort to spread their brand of a more egalitarian Christian faith throughout the Mediterranian world. Their demise is the last gasp of a female quest for equality in the church of late antiquity.

 

[willowsbible]

God is genderless because he is not human. Numbers 23:19 God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

John 1:1-2, John 4:24, 1 John 4:8, 1 John 1:5, Colossians 1:15,

 

[Neogaia777]

God is either neither gender, or both genders, the angels are also, and if we become angels, will be so for us...

 

[timewerx]

(3) Even in patriarchal perceptions of the uniquely feminine, aspects of feminine stereotypes are deemed superior to the stereotypes of masculinity. For example, a woman's intuition, her power to give birth, and her womb and breasts as symbols of her nurturing gifts were widely perceived as lacking a satisfactory masculine counterpart, and this lack inspired feminine imagery of the divine in early Judeo-Christian tradition.

In recent scientific research. It was experimentally proven (in mice) it was possible for the female egg cell to "self-fertilize" without sperm with a little intervention.

It was "easily" possible in the female egg cell because it contained most of the required cellular material for reproduction.

The same feat would be impossible in the male sperm because it would be lacking most of the require components for reproduction.

To give an analogy. The female egg cell is a pickup truck. The male egg cell is the key.

All the scientists did was to hardwire the ignition system of the pickup truck and off it went without a key. But if you only have a key but the vehicle is completely gone, you're not going anywhere.

It won't take much for evolution to decide that women "should do it themselves" aka "virgin births". But it will mean the demise of the male species as virgin births could only produce females. There are complex life forms that reproduce exclusively this way (virgin births) like certain species of lizards. And ironically, the lack of genetic diversity doesn't seem to be a problem at all for the species. It's a mystery, you could tell.

My conclusion is that the female species is easily superior to the male species collectively. Females might as well be the bulwark of life and certainly more important in terms of sustaining life on Earth.

 

[Deadworm]

(3b) In my view, Proverbs 8 provides the closest biblical mandate for the evolutionary principles of random selection and genetic mutation. I quote this poetic speech by Lady Wisdom from the New Jerusalem translation:

22.'Yahweh created me [Lady Wisdom], first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works.
23. From everlasting, I was firmly set, from the beginning, before the earth came into being...
30.I was beside the master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,
31.at play everywhere on his earth, delighting to be with the children of men.

In Jewish Wisdom literature, Wisdom (Hebrew: hochmah: Greek: Sophia) is personified and often speaks as if She is an entity separate from God. But this is illusory because the Jews embrace monotheism. So why do they find it expedient to speak of Wisdom as if She is a distinct entity? Because Wisdom expresses the laws of creation that were established at the dawn of creation and operate independently of intervening divine fiat! Thus Wisdom declares that God created Her before the universe and that She, or rather her laws, were then "firmly fixed" (8:22-23) or established. Thus the biblical concept of Lady Wisdom overlaps with our modern poetic concept of Mother Nature.

So what is Wisdom's (= Mother Nature's) role as partner to the "Master Craftsman" or Architect? Wisdom's role is to support God not through purposive "work," but through divine "play (8:30-31)." This image allows for seemingly random non-purposive process that, though playful or experimental, leads to a grand ordered result. Thus, the Bible sows poetic seeds for the evolutionary principle of random selection. As might be expected, then, Jewish Wisdom literature assigns a role to Chance in the course of life: "All are victims of time and chance (Ecclesiastes 9:11

 

[Douglas Hendrickson]

Who are you?

You say "Bill." Should he say "Bill"? (Or perhaps "Joe"?

 

[Douglas Hendrickson]

In recent scientific research. It was experimentally proven (in mice) it was possible for the female egg cell to "self-fertilize" without sperm with a little intervention.

It was "easily" possible in the female egg cell because it contained most of the required cellular material for reproduction.

The same feat would be impossible in the male sperm because it would be lacking most of the require components for reproduction.

To give an analogy. The female egg cell is a pickup truck. The male egg cell is the key.

All the scientists did was to hardwire the ignition system of the pickup truck and off it went without a key. But if you only have a key but the vehicle is completely gone, you're not going anywhere.

It won't take much for evolution to decide that women "should do it themselves" aka "virgin births". But it will mean the demise of the male species as virgin births could only produce females. There are complex life forms that reproduce exclusively this way (virgin births) like certain species of lizards. And ironically, the lack of genetic diversity doesn't seem to be a problem at all for the species. It's a mystery, you could tell.

My conclusion is that the female species is easily superior to the male species collectively. Females might as well be the bulwark of life and certainly more important in terms of sustaining life on Earth.

If "evolution" is so good, and "it wouldn't take much," then why didn't it happen long ago?

 

[Douglas Hendrickson]

In my view, Proverbs 8 provides the closest biblical mandate for the evolutionary principles of random selection and genetic mutation. I quote this poetic speech by Lady Wisdom from the New Jerusalem translation:

22.'Yahweh created me [Lady Wisdom], first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works.
23. From everlasting, I was firmly set, from the beginning, before the earth came into being...
30.I was beside the master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,
31.at play everywhere on his earth, delighting to be with the children of men.

In Jewish Wisdom literature, Wisdom (Hebrew: hochmah: Greek: Sophia) is personified and often speaks as if She is an entity separate from God. But this is illusory because the Jews embrace monotheism. So why do they find it expedient to speak of Wisdom as if She is a distinct entity? Because Wisdom expresses the laws of creation that were established at the dawn of creation and operate independently of intervening divine fiat! Thus Wisdom declares that God created Her before the universe and that She, or rather her laws, were then "firmly fixed" (8:22-23) or established. Thus the biblical concept of Lady Wisdom overlaps with our modern poetic concept of Mother Nature.

So what is Wisdom's (= Mother Nature's) role as partner to the "Master Craftsman" or Architect? Wisdom's role is to support God not through purposive "work," but through divine "play (8:30-31)." This image allows for seemingly random non-purposive process that, though playful or experimental, leads to a grand ordered result. Thus, the Bible sows poetic seeds for the evolutionary principle of random selection. As might be expected, then, Jewish Wisdom literature assigns a role to Chance in the course of life: "All are victims of time and chance (Ecclesiastes 9:11

So NOT a work of God, huh? His fashioning, but "before the oldest of his works? Contradictory CRAP. (I suppose it's the translation, but I won't bother looking.) I guess your last paragraph here shows it's mostly your imagining.

 

[Douglas Hendrickson]

GOD IS MALE. TOTALLY LOVE. Toward the female, obviously.

 

[Razare]

God's female quality is found in wisdom.

In Christ dwells the fullness of wisdom. Wisdom is a woman in proverbs.

So Christ does have a woman living on the inside of him, though he is "male" (rather men are like his primary nature), just as from Adam's body came a woman.

"Let us make man in our image"... He made Adam, who contained within himself both a man and a woman. He was a man, but having a woman live inside of him.

Men have this genetically. We have the woman chromosome and the male chromosome, X and Y. If you just take out an X from a male and duplicate it once, so the female has enough chromosomes, you have a healthy female as far as I know. Even if they miss one X, they are still a woman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_syndrome

Then in the person of Christ, is locked a woman. In his person-hood, wisdom is contained within him. But then also in his genetics, there is the DNA of a woman.

Now, this X chromosome was Marry's. Which is very interesting. I might assert that Mary's genetics then were technically perfect before God, or if the were not perfect, they were at least half perfect, so the portions she passed onto the Messiah were untainted.

Now a lot of false cults teach God is a man and God is also a woman in the sense they are "equal" in terms of natures, like yin and yang. That is a false teaching. I'm not saying men are superior or women are superior, I am saying that God symbolically calls the Sun male, and the Moon female. A sun is a great thing to have. Also, the moon is a great thing to have. They're different. Then also, from a male comes out a woman, but men are not complete without that woman.

So it is not yin and yang, but something better than that which God designed.

 

[timewerx]

If "evolution" is so good, and "it wouldn't take much," then why didn't it happen long ago?

It happened with the reptiles first because obviously, they were a much older species. Some reptile species likely evolved it during a major extinction event - to avoid extinction.

Many reptile, fish, and less commonly avian species are capable of "virgin births" in the wild. They are much older species than mammals which included us.

In a prolonged Extinction Level Event where a species are in the brink of extinction, it would be favorable to eliminate sexual competition which will work against the survival of a species. If a species will is to survive, it will logically resort to virgin births and prevent males from being born. If the harsh conditions drag on, eventually, all males cease to exist when no males are being born.

Males and genetic diversity are actually a "luxury" if conditions are favorable enough. But in incredibly tough times, when the survivability of a species is threatened, then only all-female self reproduction is viable.

Life simply belongs to the females. They are the "tree of life" if that means something.

 

[Deadworm]

(3c) CHRIST AS LADY WISDOM IN MATTHEW AND PAUL:

These 4 NT texts help explain why the earliest concept of the Trinity (Greek: Trias) includes Lady Wisdom (Sophia) rather than the Holy Spirit and why Montanist female prophets can have visions of Christ as a woman.

(i) "We proclaim Christ crucified,...to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the Wisdom [Sophia] of God (1 Corinthians 1:23-24)." This feminine image of the Risen Lord might help explain why why Paul sanctions female leaders in his churches (more on that in future posts).

(ii) "The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!" Yet [Lady] Wisdom is vindicated by Her deeds (Matthew 11:18)." Jesus' deeds are here equated with Wisdom's deeds, and so, Jesus is identified as Wisdom.

(iii) Later in Matthew 11, Jesus speaks as Wisdom Herself: "Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,...and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30)." Jesus' invitation to come, take up His yoke, and thus find rest is all borrowed from the theology of Wisdom personified:

"Put your feet into Her (Lady Wisdom's) fetters and your neck into Her yoke...Come to Her with all your soul...and She will become known to You...For at last you will find the rest She gives (Sirach 6:24-28)."
"Come to me [Wisdom), you who desire me (Sirach 24:19).'

(iv) "Therefore, also the Wisdom of God said, "I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute (Luke 11:49)."
Luke has Jesus quote Lady Wisdom (Sophia), but Matthew quotes this saying, identifying Jesus as Wisdom Herself: "Therefore, I send you prophets and sages,...some of whom you will kill and crucify (Matthew 23:34)."

 

[Douglas Hendrickson]

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in HIS wonderful face ...

SHE HATH PLEASE TALK (God in her own special aye!)